No Orcas, No Bears, No Fly! But Why?? Disney Wonder Alaska VIDEO/PICS/NAVS/MENUS/MORE

For anyone who wants to read my PTR here is the link, I am just going to jump right in here with my TR, if you want to find out more about me and how we planned for our Anniversary Vacation Please feel free to read the PTR! Now Who wants to go to Seattle & Alaska??

The alarm goes off at 4:45am this morning but I had already been up since about 3:00 , I couldn't sleep with all this anticipation built up inside from planning this trip since January! I went to the office to do a last minute email check. Turned on Disney Channel for the babies (Arya & Quorra, my miniature schnauzers) and waited patiently for my mom to arrive and whisk us away to the airport. While riding in the car on the way is was pretty dark outside and I had butterflies in my stomach, I always get nervous before I go on a long flight. This one while not as long as others was almost 5 hours. We pulled up to the airport in Charlotte. I had already done online check-in, so we had our boarding passes, and I paid the $50 checked luggage fee, luckily we kept our bags under the 50 pound limit, hopefully they will still be under when we come back! We handed our luggage over to the porters outside so we didn't have to wait in line at all and just went straight to Security. While we were standing in line and waiting to put our bags through the detectors the TSA guy started up a conversation with us. We told him we were going to Alaska on the Wonder, and found out that he was a DVC member at Bay Lake, and him and his family are leaving in a week to go on the Disney Fantasy! It was pretty random, but really cool at the same time! There are Disney people EVERYWHERE and I love it! It only took about 5 minutes maximum to get through security and we were lucky enough to be able to go around the whole body scanners and only through the metal detectors which I was happy about because I was hungry and wanted to get some breakfast! Once we made it to the terminal we got some Bojangles (only in the south) Boarding started at 7:15am and we were in the air by 7:50am! Flight time to Seattle from Charlotte is about 4 hours 57 minutes so we had a little while on the plane so we might as well get comfortable! Jeremy started reading his book right away (Hunger Games) and I kept my camera out to take a photo and some video (I will put the video up at the end of the TR) Pretty Moon! I also took the time to write a few notes for the TR. About 45 minutes into the flight there was a HORRIBLE smell like sewage. If you have ever driven down I-95 to Orlando through Georgia, you know the smell I am talking about. I have absolutely no idea what it was but OH was it bad. Then about 30 minutes after that, the Flight Attendants come on over the PA and announced they has misplaced a ziploc bag of insulin and asked everyone to look around their seats for it. A little later they did announce that they had found it which was good for whoever needed it! It always seems that whatever seat I choose on an airplane that I end up getting kicked in the back the entire time This was a very eventful flight because about 2 hours into it the FA's came on the PA again asking if there was any medical personnel on board. There did happen to be a doctor on the flight and he rang his call bell, he was one row up from us, he went up 2 rows or so and started checking the vitals of the patient who was seated in row 11, we were on 15 so we could see what was happening for the most part. We looked outside and noticed that we had started going lower in elevation, maybe it was some kind of precaution for the oxygen the patient was now on?? Into the 4th hour of the flight all is calm once again, thank goodness! It was the first time ever I was on a flight where everyone cheered when we landed. Although we did have to wait a bit on the plane because EMTs were standing by on the runway to come and get the man off the plane. We made our way to the baggage claim and our bags were 2 of the first to come out so we scooped them up and took the short walk over to the light rail station where we hopped right on the LINK
to take us to our hotel for 3 nights! It was a pretty cool ride because at almost all of the stations there was a lot of public art and even inside one of the tunnels as you are going through there are playing cards popping up outside the windows, it was really awesome! We made our way to our hotel the Mayflower Park Hotel
We were checked right in, it was only about 11:00am there and our room was ready right away!! With our bags in our room, now what do we do?

Since we had a little bit of time before our Savor Seattle Gourmet Indulgence Tour we decided to walk around the city a bit. We were only 2 blocks from Pike Place or something like that, and I knew I needed to grab some postcards and a magnet (I collect magnets from travel destinations) so we chose to head down there and just look around for a little bit. I don't have any photos from this first part other than the Market Sign
Sorry, I took a lot of video this day, but I promise I do have lots of Market Photos from the Pike Place Tour so don't you worry! Plus you can see the video at the end of the TR This market I swear has some of the BEST looking seafood and fruit and flowers that I have ever seen in my entire life! They had the biggest shrimp and lobster tails, scallops, everything, and mountains of seafood and shellfish everywhere. I want to move there just so I can go to the market to buy my food for the day. They had Rainier Cherries that were bright and colorful, rows and rows of flowers! If you get a chance to go to Seattle Pike Place is a must do, I am sure you already know that, or may think that it is too touristy, but Just go it is worth it!! We had to meet for the tour at 1:40 at The Yellow Leaf Cupcake Co. and we were starving, we tried to debate whether we wanted to wait to eat until the tour or grab something quick beforehand. We chose to go ahead and find something to eat, a decision which we would later regret Don't judge me for this, but we ended up eating in the Mall food court...I know...I know, the city with the most awesome food and we eat Cajun Beef in the Westlake Mall Food Court.
The Mall is right at our hotel, there is even a direct connection from the Westlake Mall to the Lobby of the Mayflower Park, which is great if it is raining, because you don't even have to go outside to use the monorail or the light rail system. Luckily, the entire time we were in Seattle it did not rain on us, actually it was really sunny and nice out. We were very lucky! If you read my PTR you know that I shipped my FE Gifts Priority Mail to the hotel, they were there waiting for me when we checked in!! We picked up the FE package at the front desk and went back up to our room, I filled out the first 2 postcards of our trip and put stamps on them and took them with me on the tour because I knew that at the last stop on the tour Gelatiamo, the Post Office was right across the street! At 1:30 we left the hotel and walked the 0.3 miles to The YellowLeaf Cupcake Co.
On our way I saw one of the coolest pieces of art ever! Who doesn't love popsicles!
When we got there we met Brad our Tour Guide with Savor Seattle and Jeremy can't help but make silly faces when I take photos, but I love them!
We got there a little early so while we were waiting on everyone else, the owner of Yellowleaf struck up a conversation with us about LA and the Dodgers. He was from LA and was going to the game on Sunday and noticed that Jeremy was wearing a Dodger hat! It was pretty cool to get to talk to the owner of the shop about LA! Once everyone arrived we got fitted with headsets and then the tour began with our first tasting! They were a Pancakes & Bacon Cupcake, and a Tomato Soup cupcake!
You have no idea how DELICIOUS these were! They only do certain flavors every day, and when they run out that's it! Jeremy really enjoyed the Tomato Soup one, it was his favorite out of the two!
Next we headed down the street to Serious Pie which is a Tom Douglas restaurant, he is a James Beard award winning chef and even beat Morimoto on Iron Chef America!
We got to try two different types of pizza there, we tasted the Yukon Gold Potato Rosemary Pecorino, and the Roasted Morel Mushroom and Truffle Cheese Pizza! Needless to say both of these pizzas didn't last long at all with our group!
As I do this TR, I realize that I don't have that many photos of myself...well there is nothing I can really do about that now, but I do have a few that Jeremy took later on in the trip, plus some photos we purchased. I need to hand over the camera more often! Note to self, next trip tell Jeremy to take more photos of me! Moving on! We left Serious Pie and made our way to Icon Grill which has very eclectic decor, it is a pretty cool restaurant with random stuff all over!
They presented us with Macaroni & Cheese and a Blue Cheese Topped Beef Tenderloin, and uhh...well I ate it before I took a photo, and this was all that was left after I was done...
Remember earlier when I mentioned that I was going to regret eating before we came, well this is where the fullness really started kicking in, but we were not going to stop now! It is actually really funny because later on our motto turned into "If You See It, Eat It" and that started early with us on this trip!
From Icon Grill we made our way to Pike Place to La Buona Tavola
We tried Sooo many things there, Red Pepper Pesto, and Pesto Alla Genovese, White Truffle & Black Truffle Oil, 2 different kinds of aged balsamic vinegars, truffle salt, potato leek soup with white truffle oil, apple curd and corn cookies, those were my favorite!
Fullness meter at maximum capacity, wait we have how many restaurants left go to??????/FONT]

We have 4 more places to go on our tour, and we are filling up fast, I did forget to mention that at Icon Grill we also had a Orange Drop Martini, which is like the lemon version except the orange is substituted, you get the drift... So we made our way to the edge of Pike Place and down the steps to Il Bistro which was considered the first gourmet type restaurant there at Pike, or at least I think that is what he said, Oh and by gourmet, they mean white tablecloths...I thought that was funny!
Il Bistro is an Italian restaurant and the actual Executive Chef cooked our Risotto that we are having, we waited at the door until he was ready to open it for us after he had finished stirring it! He made us Clam & Mussel Saffron Risotto
and man was it yummy, adding on the starch, and nothing goes better with that than a lovely glass of Waving Tree Sangiovese Wine. Jeremy doesn't usually like red wine, but he made sure to write down the name of this one, he loved it! I am not much of a wine drinker myself, but this one was alright for me.
Waddling our way out of Il Bistro we walked down past Post Alley to the Market Theater and the most disgusting yet interesting thing I have seen in a while. The Market Theater Gum Wall, it kind of makes you want to chew gum and sanitize yourself all at the same time.
Still walking down Post Alley we came to the back side of The Pike Brewing Company!
We had an awesome walk around in there, and learned the process of beer making, which Jeremy now wants to try at home More for him, because I don't like Beer either. We were taken upstairs to the reserved table and given 2 different types of their beer, and some cheese pairings to go with them!
The cheeses were amazing! I thoroughly enjoyed those and to give myself credit I did taste the beers, but ended up giving them to Jeremy to finish : We left Pike and the saw the owner nailing something to the wall, Brad said that he has put every piece of decor on these walls in here, and almost every time he sees him, he is still doing it! We walked down the street toward the water and ended up at Thoa's (pronounced Twahs) which is considered to have Contemporary Vietnamese cuisine.
You have a great view of the new Ferris Wheel being built, it wasn't open when we were there but is supposed to be open by the 4th of July in case anyone is interested in riding it! This place is lovely inside! If I get a chance to go back to Seattle we are definitely going to eat here! We got to sample the Pho Xao which is the dish that was the predecessor of Pad Thai.
I could eat 10 more bowls of that, well not at the time, adding on another starchy pasta dish to our total after the cheese and bread...at least there was only one more place to go from here! We made our last walk as a tour group up the street to Gelatiamo where we got to try some Raspberry Sorbet and some Amaretto Gelato. Jeremy liked the Amaretto better and I liked the Raspberry better so we each swapped and I got 2 scoops of Raspberry and he Amaretto!
We said goodbye to our Guide Brad! He did a great job and we were looking forward to the Savor Seattle Pike Place Tour on Sunday even more now, just the next time we knew not to eat beforehand...we even told Brad they should change that on the confirmation where it says to eat a small meal before you come! We walked across the street and dropped off 2 postcards and started making our way to Safeco Field for the 1st of 3 Baseball Games! The Seattle Mariners vs the Los Angeles Dodgers! Yay Dodgers! We passed by some more art on the way, the hardest working man in Seattle, this is a moving sculpture by the way, I know you can't tell by my photo but he hammers 24 hours a day and only has one day off per year Labor Day! (Thanks rogattdm for the info)
We passed Pioneer Square and this gorgeous Totem Pole
We finally made it to Safeco Field!
It was actually a pretty short walk, well shorter than I thought it was going to be anyway. Jeremy had a quick photo op behind the big glove!
We made it to our seats in time to watch the Dodgers have Batting Practice or BP for those who watch baseball a lot like we do...hehe
We were right on the 1st Base Line and on the 2nd row so we had to stay alert as instructed by this foam bumper on the railing
When it was almost time for the game to start they opened the roof because it was super sunny outside and apparently that doesn't happen very much in Seattle, except when we are there I guess...I just assumed that the roof was going to be closed so I didn't wear my contacts and therefore my sunglasses which turned out to be unfortunate..I had to keep my rain jacket hood up so I could see, note to self, bring contacts and sunglasses just in case...LOL
What a lovely photo.. So sadly enough for us we ended up being at a history making game! We watched the 10th combined no hitter in baseball history. But it was done by the Mariners so the Dodgers lost, what a great way for us to be welcomed, the Mariners kicked their butts! Oh well, the starting pitcher for the Mariners that night Kevin Millwood is from the town we were both born in, so I guess it is alright, there are still 2 more games right, lets hope they do better on those. After the game was over we walked over to the light rail and hopped on to go back to the hotel. While we were waiting for it though, Jeremy made a sad face at me because the Dodgers lost so I had to take a photo of that even though it was really dark outside.
By the time we got in the bed we had been going for almost 21 hours, we need that rest for tomorrow! As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out!

I LOVE the flowers at the market! Every time we go, I get some, because you can't beat their prices, either!

Also, you totally just sold me on the Savor Seattle tour! I grew up in WA (not Seattle area, but visited Seattle many, many times growing up) and then moved here last year, and I still enjoy tourist activities! So I am so going on that tour! Thanks for the tip!

ETA: Please tell me you ate garlic fries at Safeco????

Also, I have tried that potato leek soup with the truffle oil (someone was standing on the sidewalk giving out samples one time while I was there) and it was SOOO good!

After a long day and a night in a different bed I usually wake up with a little bit of a headache. It could be the weather change or the time change, but I did take a little Bayer because I didn't want my vacation to be spoiled by a headache! Still almost on NC time we were up and out the hotel door by 9:00am to go searching for a little breakfast. On my research before we left the house I found a little place called Dahlia Bakery
(another Tom Douglas establishment). It was within walking distance of the Mayflower, almost everything is, it is very centrally located and everyone is super friendly there should you bee needing a hotel in Seattle, I would recommend it 100%! Back to Dahlia! It is a tiny little bakery stuck to the side of another of his restaurants Dahlia Lounge, and if you have a chance to go to the bakery...YOU MUST GO! I ordered a fried egg sandwich with bacon
and Jeremy got a ham & cheese croissant. Both were Fantastic! In fact, they were so good that we decided to go back inside and get more stuff to try! Second time around Jeremy got some made to order doughnuts which come with in house made jam and some vanilla marscarpone for dipping, he also got 2 chocolate chip cookies, and I got a plain croissant!
In all seriousness, I don't think that I have had baked goods so fresh and delicious since we were in Paris, and these even rival those! We left the bakery with full tummies and walked about 1 mile to Olympic Sculpture Park down on the water.
Jeremy is a big fan of art, and I really love sculpture. Back at home before we came on the trip we started getting into geocaching. We brought along our GPS and a few travel bugs for this trip and our first cache location was here at the park. It was what is called a puzzle cache. You find clues and get answers to solve puzzles written by the creator, and at the end you have a GPS coordinate, you go there and you find your cache! The cache was called "Olympic Sculpture Park Walk" We had 17 clues to solve and then at the end we had to "decode" in order to find the final coordinates! The 1st & second clues took us to this sign
Clue #2: What action harms the art, take the 3rd letter of this word.
Around the corner from there we found this piece entitled Curve XXIV which was apart of Clue #3
This is a lovely park! It has lots of beautiful plants and landscaping, it makes for a wonderful walk, stroll, run, anything really and there were lots of people doing all of those things!
Persephone Unbound
Perre's Ventaglio III
Sky Landscape I
Wake, which was part of Clue #4
Bunyon's Chess, part of Clue #5
The next piece "Eagle" was involved in 3 different clues #'s 6, 7 & 8!
At one point we looked and and were like, Hey...there is the Space Needle, you can see it almost everywhere you are in Seattle!
We still had loads more clues to figure out, but it didn't really take very long at all to get to this point, so we slowed down and started really taking in all of the art around us....AND
sorry I couldn't resist. This was part of a piece entitled Love & Loss which was part of clues 11, 12 & 13. After we solved those we had to sit down on a bench right on the waterfront boardwalk
to solve for our first set of coordinates which would lead us somewhere to continue our quest...

Great report! Enjoying all the details as we leave in two months. The food tour looked wonderful and isn't something I would have ever thought of, very cool.

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Yay! I am glad you are enjoying reading it! I bet you can tell I am a very detail oriented person! The food tour was fantastic! It was also a great way to see the city, we also went on the Pike Place Market Tour with Savor Seattle which will be in the TR a little later! Thanks again!!

Also, you totally just sold me on the Savor Seattle tour! I grew up in WA (not Seattle area, but visited Seattle many, many times growing up) and then moved here last year, and I still enjoy tourist activities! So I am so going on that tour! Thanks for the tip!

ETA: Please tell me you ate garlic fries at Safeco????

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The have lots of tours and we only went on two of them! We want to plan another trip back to Seattle just to spend some more time there! We absolutely loved the city!

Sadly, we did not eat garlic fries at Safeco...BUT I smelled them and saw them everywhere, they looked fantastic!!! We were so full that first night that we didn't even eat anything at all I am sure we will be going back and those are one of the top to do eats on my Safeco List for next time!! Thank you so much for reading! I am very happy you are enjoying my report!!

We solved our first coordinates and went on a little walk to the other side of the park in the Elliott Bay Bike Trail. On the way to the first coords, we passed a lovely little beach cove, we couldn't resist walking down there, it was just so darn inviting!
We kept going with only a few clues left to solve, we passed another little cove with lots of driftwood in it
and a plaque Honoring the Mariners who have perished at sea
The final clue was at a cute little lighthouse structure. The question was: What is the second letter in the title of this structure? Now with all of our answers we were ready to solve for the final coordinates and get to the cache! As we were solving we went by another sculpture, but were quickly when we noticed a lady ummm relieving herself behind this piece of art...it gives a whole other meaning to the title of the piece which happened to be "Adjacent, Against, Upon" Moving on, we made it to the location of the cache which was a little on the rocky side, so Jeremy went down to get it, there was a guy catching fish at the bottom so we had to make sure he wasn't watching what we were doing or the cache could potentially be "muggled" SUCCESS! We found the cache and placed our travel bug inside, hopefully to be movied along on its way, we shall see what happens with that. It was getting to be around lunch time and so we walked back up to the Pavilion to make a pit stop...not on the art...there was a really cool mural inside depicting rough seas which Jeremy took a photo of while waiting on me as well as a boat, not sure of the story on these since I didn't take the photos but nevertheless here they are
Jeremy and I watch the Travel Channel and Food Network A LOT. There is a show called Man V Food and on that show the host, Adam went to Seattle and one of the restaurants that he went to was Red Mill Burgers. Apparently they are continuously voted as the best here and so we wanted to see for ourselves! We left Olympic Sculpture Park and walked up to 1st & Broad, we were going to have to take a bus up to Interbay where one of the Red Mill locations was, the bus came very quickly, we tapped our Orca cards and we were on our way! 20 minutes later and we were standing in line to order our food!
We ordered 2 Deluxe Mill Burgers with Cheese, and order of Onion Rings, tartar sauce, and 2 cokes! Now I normally don't drink soft drinks, 99% of the time I only drink water, so I have no idea what made me order a coke, I guess it was the atmosphere who knows, but I did it anyway. After all I am on vacation right! It was a little busy, but not too bad. So we grabbed a booth while waiting for our order to be called
which really didn't take long at all and we dug in!
I started with my burger!
Now, before I get punched by every Seattle person who loves these burgers, just remember how much you loved my TR before...just kidding! They were pretty good burgers, I wouldn't say the best I have ever had but definitely good. Jeremy said they tasted like a homemade Big Mac... Jeremy dug into the onion rings
which were really good with the tartar sauce btw! The Onion Rings..Definitely worth going there for! I don't know what they were spiced/seasoned with..but it was on point! Because they were crunchy and spicy and yummy!
Something I noticed around Seattle is how eco-friendly everything is! Red Mill in particular had compost/recycle bins, and compostable plastic containers! I wish everywhere in NC were like this too! We left Red Mill in the afternoon and walked back over to the "temporary" bus stop, they were doing construction so it was a little tricky to find it...but we did! This area had quite a bit of traffic for a Saturday afternoon, so if you decide to venture out there make sure you are paying attention when crossing the street and such, while we were in the crosswalk with a Walk signal, a car came barreling through the red light because the person inside was texting and not paying attention...good thing we were! Back on the bus we took it to 3rd & Virginia which made for a short walk back to the hotel to get ready for the game...but on our way something caught Jeremy's attention and he just HAD to stop to feed his addiction!